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I’d like to say that every year, I write one of these. I don’t. So that’s my first wish; to review the list from the year before, find out what wishes came true, and write a new list with some repeats from the last year, and maybe some new additions…oh, who the hell am I kidding? I’ll probably be repeating this same list every year for the rest of my life. Here goes:

1. That Christians would just call Christmas “Christmas” and stop worrying about those who don’t.

2. That those who don’t would just shut the hell up already. It’s a religious holiday. Deal with it. You’re not that important…no one cares how Christmas makes you “feel” You’re the only one who does.

3. That the Democratic and Republican Parties would die a peaceful, but certain death. If not, an unpeaceful death is just as good.

4. That we bring an end to the experiment of Free Trade, at least until the rest of the world catches up to America and Western Europe in wages and employee protections. I don’t like unions, but the responsibility for sane, compassionate employee treatment belongs with the employer. Shame on you for making unions a necessity. Shame on you for shipping jobs overseas to places where unions are illegal and there are no worker protections. In doing this, you show just how un-Christian America really is. How would Jesus treat his employees?

5. No more war, anywhere, ever. It’s so uncivilized. Of course, we still solve our diplomatic problems this way, so that wish will die with me.

6. That Americans would stop hearing the loudest voice and start hearing the small, quiet, rational one. In listening to the loudest voice, we have given our country over to two thuggish political parties who hold a death grip on our political process, and given birth recently to a third, thuggish party that promises to be just as inept at obeying the will of the people as the first two.

7. That we would remember our responsibility to our children and to our neighbors before we go selfish and do something stupid that damages their lives forever.

8. I wish that FoxNews and MSNBC would inexplicably go off the air…permanently.

9. No more money in our politics, no more corporate or union domination over our elections. (Did hell just drop a degree in temperature?)

10. That somewhere, there is a real Santa for every child on earth.

11. That birthers would just shut the hell up already.

12. That Democrats would stop whining about the President they elected.

The elections are over and the devil’s brother, ahem, the Republicans, won sweeping victories throughout America on Tuesday. Over and over again the conservative rallying cry was, “Government can’t create jobs…only the private sector can!” In the midst of possibly the next Great Depression, over and over, we’ve heard one common theme. We’ve listened to the pundits and the candidates tell us time and again that only corporate America can bring us out of this recession.

Wrong.

Way, way, way wrong.

When demand for products begins to dwindle, what is a business to do? What recourse do they have? One of the first things they do is to cut costs, and amongst the costs they cut are labor costs, because after all, if demand is down, you have to protect your margin. No one can blame a business owner or corporation for managing profit. If those profits become losses, the company will fail. As demand reduces further, these same companies will continue to cut labor costs, cutting hours, paying employees less, and laying off workers. Their solution for their particular business is to reduce the amount of labor they are paying for because the amount of income they had is shrinking.

Demand is down, and that one company reduces its labor costs.

What happens when most companies in America reduce labor costs? Does demand increase? Is the solution that works for one company a solution that can work for the entire American economy?

You know the answer as well as I do. The solution that works for one company is counterintuitive to what will work to end the recession for the American economy. If every corporation and every small business reduces labor costs in order to stop losses or protect profit, the private sector fails. What started as a small reduction in demand quickly grows into a gaping hole in our economy. The lesson here is not that one company reducing labor costs is wrong; I think I’ve already stated that no one can blame that one company for protecting profits. But that one company is contributing to a “solution” that actually grows the recession rather than prevents or ends it. Reducing labor costs means reducing the amount of money that American workers earn over any period of time. Typically, a loss of demand signals a lack of liquidity in the consumer markets. That can also be defined as Americans spending less because they have less money. Further reducing what they have at that point in time creates a whirlpool effect, which sees demand spiral downward faster and faster as the supply of money available to fuel that demand dwindles.

We have seen American jobs leave our shores because Corporate America saw an opportunity to increase profits by using cheaper, less argumentative overseas labor. What was the result of that? Fewer jobs available to Americans, and from that grew a lack of the ready cash necessary to fuel our consumer driven economy. Wages have been reduced and workers have been laid off. Free Trade agreements that gave American jobs away to foreigners not only reduced the number of jobs available to Americans, but reduced the amount of cash available to fuel the very demand that a demand- side economy requires to thrive.

In short, reducing labor costs is counter-intuitive to a healthy American economy. When you reduce labor costs, you also reduce the amount of money needed to drive demand, and without demand, singular companies and corporations all over America begin reducing labor costs even further. It snowballs, and the rest is history.

The private sector can save the economy? Impossible. The private sector is destroying the economy in a last ditch effort to save each individual corporation. The correct move to create demand would be to keep labor on, to bite the bullet for a little while in the hopes that demand would return. Instead, corporations all over America took the red pill, cut labor costs, and in doing so, shared in growing the lack of demand. I can’t blame them.

The conservative Republican, “common sense” (winks to Sarah Palin!) solution to the depression is in reality a Non-sense Conservative recipe for destroying the economy. When demand is down, a company is within its rights to protect itself. But when every private sector firm is busy protecting itself, who is left to protect the American economy? From a macro perspective, the massive layoffs that result from individual corporations attempting to cut labor costs spell the end of economic boom in America until an outside force can act upon it. The private sector, at this stage, is no longer able to save the economy. They are part of the problem, unwittingly it would seem, nevertheless, they are at the mercy of someone or something else.

To my newly elected Wisconsin Senator: The private sector cannot solve this, Senator Ron Johnson. You’re a businessman, you ought to know better! You ought to know how absolutely your business is at the mercy of demand. When demand is down, you cannot create it by yourself, because your response contributes to a further contraction of the economy. You are the private sector, Senator Johnson. Got any solutions?

Now that you’re the new Senator from Wisconsin, we expect you to fix it. Voodoo, as shown here, won’t work. You need to try something else. The first place you can start is to figure out how to get some or many of those millions of jobs we have shipped overseas back to our shores. Start there, and start quickly. We don’t have much time left. Ω

In the movies, you seldom see an Honor Guard with Military Honors displayed in anything but blazing sunlight, or maybe amongst the turning leaves of fall, as the sun hangs overhead. But today was not the movies, and the sun was nowhere to be seen.

Amidst rain pouring down like tears, Marine Corporal Justin Cain was brought home to Manitowoc, WI, as a family and a community mourned the loss of one its sons. Justin was killed by a roadside bomb in the Helmland Province of Afghanistan on Wednesday, October 13.

There were no movie cameras or movie stars on this cold, bleak Saturday; just a caisson upon which Justin Cain’s casket was placed, drawn from the funeral home to the High School Justin had graduated from just four short years ago. There was no long line of limousines parked in a cemetery. The birds were silent, the leaves were falling, and the flowers had gone away for the season. To be certain, there were the politicians, under their umbrellas waiting to be seen.

A small child backed away from the caisson as it passed. Young ladies bundled up in rain gear shed tears as they watched their friend’s casket roll by. Even the young men, some of them in uniform to honor their buddy, couldn’t hide their tears. There’s something about a military procession and Military Honors for a fallen soldier that makes us unable to hide our grief.

Several hundred who had gathered outside the High School gym watched silently as the caisson went by, accompanied by a Marine honor guard, and followed by a riderless horse. I don’t know why, but that riderless horse brought silent rain from my eyes. I overheard a child ask someone, “Why are they all crying?” I wanted to answer him. I wanted to say, “because, child, we just don’t know how to respond to a young man that most of us didn’t know, who was willing to give his life for people he didn’t know, and most of us feel guilty because before he came home, never to rise again, most of us hadn’t given one thought to him or the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who are at risk in war every day. Suddenly, here he is, and here we are, and we can’t move from this spot until we have cried our tears of shame and grief.” But I didn’t get the chance to answer that child; I didn’t see which child asked it.

I have been a part of one other service with Military Honors, helping an old friend from Georgia bury the son who had followed in his footsteps. That one stayed with me for a long time. This one will, too. That day was sunny and overbearingly hot. This one was cold and overbearingly wet.

It’s true; most Americans don’t give more than a moment’s thought each day to the soldiers whose job description it is to die in combat if necessary. Military combat service is a suicide mission. Thankfully, most soldiers never have to fulfill that mission. But for the families and communities who lose one that does, it is days like today that will never die in their memory. One of them was too many for me, two of them are too much to bear.

I looked at the faces around me, and, knowing that I had already been here once before, I tried to remember my thoughts from the first. I remember my friend, standing behind his son’s mother, with one hand on her shoulder, and one on his daughter-in-law’s, his grandson grasping to his coat. I remember the Honor Guard; how many of them had seen combat? Many of the members of the Ready Reserve, the men and women who serve the Honor Guard, have.

I recall the silence, and I remember the faces of the people gathered around the grave site. There was a crowd of people gathered at the rear of the group; all of them young. I imagined they were his friends, there to say goodbye to the friend they would never see again. The finality of it is brought to the surface as the bugle blares and the guns fire.

One young man’s death in a faraway land brings a community together like nothing else can. But it’s a gathering that, in the end, none of us want to remember, and all of us will never forget.

I did not know Justin Cain at all. But I think about him often. Maybe not him, but all of the others like him. It’s hard to forget the men and women who share like experiences. You sit sometimes and you wonder where they are. Are they scared? Are they taken care of? Is there enough of them to win the battle? Is their commander capable? Are we sending young people into combat without the right equipment? The richest nation on earth? Are we?

It’s 7:30 PM here. It’s taken me five hours to write this. Numerous breaks from the keyboard, numerous cigarettes, too many pauses and so many memories. This one will not go away soon.

You get to share this with me tonight. These things should never be borne alone, and, since my daughter is with her mom this weekend, I am alone. I brought it here so I could be with you.

Do me a favor. Don’t just pay lip service to Justin Cain. Don’t just think of him for a moment and forget about him forever after. It dishonors him and every one of his comrades. If there is one complaint I have about the common American, it is that we take for granted too many things, but the highest of things amongst those we take for granted are the living, and the dead, combat soldiers.

They are young like us, old like us, Americans like us, but they do a job that calls for an uncommon courage; the courage to fulfill that suicide mission if in the end, it becomes necessary. It is always hanging over their head; it never goes away. It is a stress that pervades every sense, every moment, and every breath. They live with it so that you don’t have to and sometimes they die for it. Live instead with them in your minds and in your hearts. Don’t forget them, don’t forget this moment.

I saw a community remember a son today, and the people who took the time to come out in the rain will be sorry they did forever, but they’ll probably never again take our nation’s bravest for granted. They gave this moment to Justin. They’ll never forget it. They’ll never forget him and his comrades. Military Honors aren’t like in the movies. In the real world, someone really died, and when you honor that someone, you pin your heart to your chest, you swallow the pain to the last drop, and you never, ever forget the taste. Ω

Has it come to this? Do we, as Christians and as a when-it’s-convenient Christian Nation, hate Islam and Muslims so deeply that we could tolerate, even for a moment, the burning of their most prized book?

The Dove World Outreach Center and “Pastor” Terry Jones of Gainesville Florida think so. They’re the ones hosting the Quran burning event. Love the church name, Pastor; glad to see you finally exposed what you mean by it. But you should probably remove the “Dove” part. Doves don’t burn books, and neither did Jesus.

I’m a Christian; prayed the prayer and did the adult baptism in Lake Michigan thing. I used to be pretty vocal about my faith; but I quieted down when I realized that my actions weren’t an example for my words to follow. Since that time, I tried to live my life the way I interpret Jesus’ life. I have made an effort to be compassionate above all; to love my neighbor as myself. It’s not easy because, although we love ourselves, we tend to stop at ourselves, too.

Sure, I could get all fired up at Muslims and join in the hate-fest, but what’s the point? More importantly, Pastor Terry, what would Jesus do? In all of those sacred pages of your most treasured, reverant, Holy Bible, show me the story of Jesus burning a Roman scroll, or a pagan idol. I’ve read that book twenty times through if I’ve read it once; I know it as well as you do. It ain’t in there, anywhere in the New Testament, nor is there anything like it.

In fact, you can count the number of times that Jesus was angry at “outsiders” on no hands..because it isn’t recorded anywhere in the bible. He got angry at his own religion, and at his own disciples, but there is not even one example of an angry Jesus toward another religion. Not one.

So this is how you set the example for your flock? This is the meat of the gospel that you are giving to them? Something that isn’t even part of the Gospel? A method that has more in common with Nazis than with anything Christian or Holy?

I won’t question your Christianity; we all get sidetracked from time to time. But one piece of advice I would give you; anything that encourages you to follow your anger is not of God. Anything that produces destruction is not Holy. You can deduce for yourself what causes these things.

Living a life of compassion is hard enough for the normal human being. There is no room to add anger, hate, and destruction to the mix; these things come naturally enough to us as it is. Why would you go out and seek more?

Pastor Terry, if the light within you has not been bright enough to show your Muslim neighbors the “way”, what makes you think a book-fed bonfire will? Remember the last commission Jesus left us with. You can find it at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew.

The last thing America needs right now is to spawn a sect of radicalism. If we denounce that which we see in certain sects of Islam as radical and hateful, how does answering fire with fire make us any different from them? “Them that begin by burning books, end by burning men.”. Ω

Did I miss something last weekend? Wasn’t Glenn Beck going to announce God’s plan for saving America? We don’t need another stimulus; all we need to know is whatever happened to the individual, according to Beck.

I can answer that question: That individual is named Billy Bob, and he’s been out of work for three years. He once had a great paying job in a furniture factory about 12 years ago, but then the factory moved to some second world country and didn’t take Billy Bob with them. So Billy Bob went back to school, because unlike many of his contemporaries, he could read past a third grade level, which is all it takes to get into college these days. He applied himself dutifully, and earned an associate degree as a tech rep. He landed a job as a technical service advisor and worked there for four years. Then, the company he worked for decided that they could provide just as much quality service hiring citizens of India at forty cents an hour as they could paying Billy Bob $15/hr. Once again, Billy Bob’s job was exported, and Billy Bob was jobless. So he went to work in one of the local textile plants, but that only lasted another year, and they, too, moved to a second world country, leaving Billy Bob jobless for the third time in a dozen years. He has been jobless since.

That’s whatever happened to the American individual

What’s that, you say?

Oh…my bad. I didn’t realize that Glenn Beck wanted to know whatever happened to the wealthy individual in America. Ω

Lets talk about high corporate (or business) taxes versus low taxes. I argued with a die-hard Conservative for about an hour this weekend, and he refused to see the sense of what I am about to tell you. Let’s see if it makes sense to you, or if I am wet behind the ears. I’ll use the same examples I gave him.

Let’s say I have two tax scenarios; one is with corporate/business taxes at 25% and one is at 75%. Please keep in mind that no one is suggesting even close to a 75% tax rate, but let’s use it for an example.

My Conservative friend said that trickle down economics works because if he had lower corporate taxes (he doesn’t own a business) he would use that extra money saved with the lower taxes to buy equipment, which would trickle down to the factory that made the equipment and the people employed there. Well enough.

Except that’s not the way it works in business. It sounds good, it almost sounds right, but it isn’t. It’s an anecdote that has no basis in reality. I answered that any business person waiting until after he had paid his taxes to see what he had left for capital equipment purchases is a moron and deserves to get gouged by taxation. That wasn’t met with a great deal of understanding or approval, so I explained why I said it.

As a business owner, I don’t wait until I pay my taxes in the new year to buy equipment I need. That would be stupid. I buy the equipment before I pay my taxes for one purpose. I call it Profit Reduction. Call it whatever you want; tax-deductible equipment purchase, capital equipment purchase… whatever. The point is I use that purchase to reduce the profit that I have to report to the IRS. Remember that all profit is taxable, but not all income is. Income is the money my business earns. But it’s not all taxable. I can deduct expenses just like an individual can. I can deduct labor, travel, materials, office space rent, utilities, equipment purchases, etc. All of those expenses are deducted from gross business revenue (income). What’s left after that is profit. Let’s go to the example.

Let’s say my business has a gross revenue of $200,000. Labor costs are $120,000, equipment costs were $20,000, and rent and utilities and all other expenses were $20,000. Those business expenses add up to $160,000. Since my gross revenue was $200,000, my actual net profit would be $40,000. If my business was taxed at 25%, my tax bill would be $10,000. If it was taxed at a 75% rate, my tax bill would be $30,000. If I waited until after I paid my taxes to buy equipment, I would have left my net profit at the full $40,000, all of it taxable.

Here’s why high taxes can actually be an incentive for a business owner to buy equipment at the end of the year…or give out employee bonuses at the end of the year. Yes, if you receive a bonus around Christmas time, that bonus is fully deductible as a business expense. Now you know why it comes around the end of the year. And here you thought your boss was actually giving you a Christmas bonus. Nope, he’s reducing the net profit of his business and your bonus helps him avoid paying more taxes. As a business owner, the thought process sounds something like this:

“Hmmm, if my net profit is $40,000, I’ll owe $10,000 in taxes this year. Why should I pay that much? Why should the Federal government get my business’ hard earned money? I’d rather give it away than pay them that much!”

And so evolves the “Christmas” bonus in the mind of the business owner. Better that my employees get a bonus than the Fed gets one dime more than they deserve, which is almost nothing. Besides, maybe that bonus will encourage my employees to work more efficiently; at least they won’t waste that money like the Federal government would. And, I can pay myself a nice bonus, too…fully deductible.

So let’s say the bonuses add up to $20,000. My net profit is now reduced to $20,000, and if I paid at a 25% rate, I would still owe $5,000 in taxes. Hmm, how can I cut that amount even lower? I know! I’ll buy equipment that I was putting off until next year! Anything to reduce my net profit as close to zero as possible so that my tax bill is as close to zero as possible, too.

Trickle Down Economics puts the cart before the horse. In other words, it paints a portrait of a business owner being a moron and paying taxes before he pays bonuses or buys capital equipment. Not smart, especially when it leaves you paying taxes on a much higher net profit. I don’t personally know of a single business owner or executive who runs his business that way. Not one.

Remember when I said that higher tax rates would create an even greater incentive for a business to reinvest in itself rather than throw their net profit down the toilet by paying extra taxes to the Fed? Well, think about it. If my tax rate was 75%, that would mean a $40,000 profit would see $30,000 of my company’s money being paid to the IRS. If you think I’m stingy at 25%, wait until you see how stingy I am toward the IRS if taxes are at 75%.

Where does all that money go? If I give it to my employees as bonuses, conveniently around Christmas so I look like a big softy; where does that money end up? Does some of it maybe end up at the mall? And maybe some of it is saved, and some of it is invested. If I didn’t give those “Christmas” bonuses, and instead paid the actual taxes on my gross profit, where would that money end up? I think we all know that it would end up in the toilet.

Where does the money I spend on Capital equipment right before the end of the year go? The same place my Conservative friend said it would end up if only the Feds would cut his business taxes so he had more money to buy equipment. The cart before the horse.

If you are a business owner who waits to buy equipment or give out bonuses until after you’ve paid taxes, you are flushing money down the toilet. Executives and business owners do not operate that way, unless they are morons.

In the end, the Federal Government does not dictate to me how much of that gross profit they are going to get. I control that, because I control how much net profit I actually have. I control it through wages, expenses, and equipment purchases. If I have to buy a new computer every year just to make sure that the $2000 I spend on it does not end up in the hands of the IRS, then that’s what I do. And I do do that.

Higher taxes are an even greater incentive for me to reinvest in my business than low taxes. Like I said before, I do not know of a single business owner or executive who doesn’t feel the same way. Conservative politics and Trickle Down anecdotes aside, the numbers prove that high taxes are a greater incentive for businesses to reinvest in themselves than low taxes. And when we reinvest in our own businesses, we are helping to create the demand that Conservatives say comes from Trickle Down economics. Cut corporate taxes, they say. But it doesn’t work. Low taxes create very little incentive for reinvestment. Rather, they create incentive for a business to hoard cash. Cash doesn’t do anyone any good unless it is spent.

This is not rocket science, but proponents of Trickle Down economics prefer anecdotes to facts. They prefer to tell you all about how businesses would reinvest money into their own business if only we cut their taxes, and they’d do it because they’d have more money to spend. But reality shows that it just doesn’t work that way. I spend my money before the Fed gets it, not after. I know exactly how much money I have to spend, and I plan that with my accountant. I reduce the actual taxes I pay by being proactive; by reinvesting in my business RATHER THAN PAYING THAT MONEY TO THE IRS.

It’s the cart before the horse. My tax bill does not decide for me how much equipment I can buy, or what kind of a bonus I can give to my employees. I decide how much gross profit is going to be exposed to taxes. That’s not an anecdote; that’s just reality. Ω

In trying to come up with a new post for the last few days, I’ve been struck by how negative some of my articles have become. I wanted to write about joblessness, or about Glenn Beck’s upcoming Revelation on August 27, but these things would invariably have led to more negativity. For just one day, I want to write about something positive.

That it took me several days to find something to write about is indicative of what my focus on politics is doing to my mind. You can’t stay here, in the world of bad news, or corruption, unemployment and economic depression, for long. You have to get out of it for a bit and open your eyes, because there is still beauty to behold, and still good in this world.

When I’m looking for something good to focus on I invariably find my daughter.

Some things never change.

On Monday, August 30, my daughter will enter college for the first time. She’s been the brightest joy of my life. I rarely talk of personal stuff here, but I’ll share this with you, even if it is a bit self-indulgent.

Whereas my focus is usually on investments and financial advice (my business) or on the dirty business of politics, my daughter’s focus is on her future, and specifically, the one starting Monday. She’s anticipating that day not with fear over how she’ll make ends meet, or fear over the economy or Washington politics, but with a different kind of fear; she’s beginning a new cycle of her life, and Monday marks her first day in school as an adult. The whole wide world is open to her, even though if you asked her, she’d say an open door would be enough for now. Just give her an opportunity to prove herself, that’s all she wants.

She’ll get that opportunity starting Monday. She’ll be seeing the world from a new perspective; an open college campus where thought, diversity, and exploration are encouraged. She’ll spread her wings and try to fly. This is the just the first step for her into what will possibly be a long career of higher learning and purpose. She wants to be a psychologist, and the one thing I know about that field is it changes so fast, that her education will be ongoing. That’s right up her alley.

I know she is a bit anxious; I was, too, my first day on campus. She’s attending our local college for her first year, which allows her to stay at home with me and keep her job. I am particularly glad about the staying at home with me part. All nerves aside, she is excited. Along with millions of other young adults, my daughter is excited about the future.

Read that again; it’s the real focus of this article.

Millions of young adults are excited about their future. I realize that this is true about many young people in this world, but it’s particularly important in this country, where often, we are only focused on what’s wrong, especially in these last few years. When I think about all of that excitement, it energizes me. I used to pick my daughter and friends up from high school, and I can attest that there is nothing more invigorating than teenagers in a car just after school. This is the energy we need; and they have it in abundance. It’s the hope we seek, and they carry it naturally; as easily as if it were sown on to the front of their shirts. In fact, maybe I should make a T-shirt and sell it. On it would be the simple phrase “I am Hope personified”.

That’s it. That’s what they, and my daughter, are. Hope. We need it; they have it. Let’s do everything we can to make sure their hope is realized; it will be to the benefit of us all. Ω

It’s rare that I invoke the name of the Holy High Radio Host, Glenn Beck. But ironic times call for ironic measures, and this is such a time. I’m astounded that I’m first one to think of this, maybe even the only one. It’s hard to believe that Glenn Beck didn’t see this before I did, but I’ll give him a pass, since he’s been so busy, lately. In fact, I’ll pick up the mantel of paranoia and fear for him, if just for a while. I’m serious, dead serious.

It all begins with the color red. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before, but maybe that’s because I relied on Beck too much. Maybe all that fear-mongering band wagoneering softened my senses, clouded my judgment, and blinded me to the truth. Still, am I the only one who has seen this?

Oh my God! It all ties together! Why didn’t we see it before?

Because Republicans were weaseling their way into the hearts and minds of Americans using that old communist trick: fear! They were telling us that they were the only Party that could protect us from government when all along, what they really wanted was for us to hand government over to them so they could complete their mission of building a country safe for the wealthy, privileged few at the top, borne on the backs of the poor, working masses.

And it almost worked! They almost fooled us into creating a corporate welfare system founded upon the principles of “fairness”. But don’t you go believing for a minute that they would be content with just taking over America! No, no no! They wanted the world! They created tax vacations for huge corporations if those corporations promised to move parts of their structure overseas, into foreign countries, where the Republican Party could gain a foothold where none was available to it before! And it worked! Almost!

Am I the only one who sees this?

Fellow Americans, we have to do something. At the very least, we have to reload, maybe even go out and buy more of what is promised in our second amendment rights. We have to arm ourselves with the assault rifle of truth, the sub-machine gun of justice, and the AK-47 of freedom, before the communists…ahem..Republicans take my beloved country over!

Folks, I truly love this country, and I wish it weren’t me being the one to discover this, but someone had to! My God! If they can take over Congress, imagine what else they can take over! The White House? Our local public libraries? Our places of worship? They’re already trying to do that! What else can they take over? Our freedom of speech? Of the press? Can you imagine me being censored? What kind of heinous political party would do this?

A political party disguised as a small government, pro-business, pro-constitution-when-it-suits-them party; that’s what kind of political party would do this. A political party hell-bent on grabbing power, by force, if necessary, to break America to their will.

Are you going to let them? Are you going to stand by and watch while, one by one, your freedoms are attacked and destroyed? Are you willing to let the Red Republican Army trample on your rights and oppress you? I, for one, will not! I will fight them, and I will show them that no matter how bloody they get, no matter how cruel they treat us, that America cannot be conquered by Communists. I will show them that America is more than just an idea; that America was founded on principles of freedom, of equal rights for all, not just for the privileged few at the top, like the Red Republicans want, but for all Americans!

You can help, if you want. Don’t just stand on the sidelines and watch the Red Republicans gun down the Freedom of Speech, or slit the throat of religious freedom. You have to meet fire with fire. If they bring knives, you have to bring guns. You can help me take America back; you can reload and fire a shot over the bow of Red Republicans. You can fire a shot for freedom.

Fellow Americans, don’t wait until it’s too late. It’s already nearing the end game. We don’t have much time. But whatever you do, don’t listen to the lies of the Red Republicans any longer. They say they want to be your friend, but what they really want is your money, and, to put it bluntly, your LIFE! That’s right. They want your life, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it, so you have to be equally as cunning, equally as ruthless to root out the evil in our midst and stem the rising Red Tide. Folks, I love my country. Don’t you want to love it as much as I do? It brings tears to my eyes to think that in a few short months, Red Republicans could take over control of Congress and resume their quest for domination of America…first…and then…the world. Are you going to let them? Well? Are you?

Glenn, you can thank me at your leisure…I’m just trying to help out. Ω

The thirty year old Conservative plan for the economy is known by many names; Supply Side, Reaganomics, but my favorite name for it is Trickle-Down economics. In case you don’t follow economic theories, Trickle-Down is the practice of giving advantage to the supply side of our economics system, the corporations, wealthy, and small businesses who create jobs, through tax breaks and incentives. The idea is that wealthy people flush with cash save that cash, and those savings are invested, through some means, back into the economy, which then through various ways, trickles down even to the poorest of Americans, either through innovations and efficiencies that make consumer goods less expensive to own, or through job creation due to increased demand.

Historically, this has been accomplished through tax breaks, especially for corporate America. In fact, about the only solution available to Supply-Siders is reducing taxes.

Thankfully, that’s as complicated as Republicans have made it, which makes my job much simpler. The idea of cutting taxes for corporate America and small businesses is that they will then use that money to create jobs in their own businesses. Only we’ve been using Bush’ Trickle-Down tax cuts for nine years, and we’re bleeding jobs. The best that can be said about Bush’ job creation record was that it was a positive record during his two terms. He averaged 49,000 jobs created per month. Economists say we need at least 150,000 to keep up with population growth. So Bush only fell about 101,000 jobs short per month with his Trickle-Down plan.

So much for tax cuts creating jobs.

Now let’s get to the good stuff, and don’t worry, this is easy. Business Plan 101. How to make money running a business.

Business A receives a tax cut and finds itself flush with cash. Wanting to do their part, they immediately hire several staff. However, after a few months, they realize that there is no work for these new staffers to do; even though they were flush with cash before they hired the new staff, in the end, there was no demand for those new hires to fulfill. After a few more months, those hires were laid off, and Business A had less cash than they did before they received the tax cut.

Business B received the same tax cut as Business A. Instead of hiring new staff, though, Business B researched whether there was actually anything for them to do; in other words, they monitored demand, always at the ready to meet it with new employees if it came to that. But in this case, the demand for their product was no different from before they received the tax cut, so they didn’t hire anyone. The tax cut ended up not achieving its goal.

Which business is the smarter business?

Tax cuts mean nothing for job creation without demand. Absolutely nothing, and that it can be described like this, without using any fancy formulas, completely destroys the myth of Trickle-Down economics. The effect that tax cuts for the wealthy, or for Corporate America have on our economy are long delayed, at best, and meaningless at worst.

Business planning 101 dictates that you don’t hire unless there is work for them to do. In other words, if demand is not present, neither should any new hires be. And this is exactly what ails our economy today. No good, smart business should ever hire someone just because they received a tax break, and the investments that the wealthy make and the subsequent trickling effect are too delayed and minimal to do any good.

Capitalism starts from the ground up. No product is sold without a consumer to buy it. This is simple stuff. I explain it to my conservative friends all of the time, and then they go watch Fox News or some moronic Republican Senator who repeats all of the old anecdotal “facts” about Supply-Side, and I have to start all over again.

I can make the greatest gadget ever, but if there is no buyer for this gadget, I’ve just lost money. Capitalism’s history is gorged with start-ups that failed because no one wanted their product or service. President Obama just visited one that teeters on the brink yesterday, ZBB in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

No matter how you roll the economy, it has a starting place, and that starting place is demand, at the bottom. Tax cuts have no significant impact on job creation. Ω